


made from the heart

by jannah (fromjannah)



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Cooking, Domestic Fluff, Gen, background willex sorry y'all, but this was really fun, molina family shenanigans, no beta we die and cry in a room for twenty-five years, the boys are corporeal sometimes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-17 07:27:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28721373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fromjannah/pseuds/jannah
Summary: when the boys are corporeal, julie and reggie decide to make a special recipe for the family's dinner.
Relationships: Alex Mercer/Willie (Julie and the Phantoms) (background), Julie Molina & Reggie Peters
Comments: 6
Kudos: 61





	made from the heart

**Author's Note:**

> welcome to another jatp fic!! cooking fics with the boys own my entire soul so i wanted to write one myself. i wanted to look into puerto rican food especially and did a good bit of research on it but please tell me if i did anything wrong!! enjoy!!

It really wasn't a secret that one of the things that the boys missed the most about being alive was eating. Whenever they were corporeal -- these days, around twenty-four hours after a gig -- they were always around the kitchen grabbing something to eat. One time, Julie had come down in the middle of the night to get a glass of water and found them all eating truly questionable amounts of ice cream. 

It was the day after one gig when Julie specifically remembered this. Alex was out on a date with Willie (though he seemed hesitant to call it that), Luke said that he had wanted to get some songwriting done in the studio, and Ray was with Carlos at a baseball game. It was just Julie and Reggie, who was almost done with an episode of The Mandalorian on Julie's laptop, which he had been enjoying a good bit more than the Star Wars prequels.

After finishing the fourth episode, Reggie came over to where Julie was finishing up an essay in the kitchen. He sighed, morose. "Baby Yoda can't catch a break," he told her sadly.

Julie nodded in sympathy. "Yeah, he really can't." She checked the clock, setting down her pencil. "Hey, Dad wanted me to make dinner, wanna help?"

Mandalorian related problems forgotten, Reggie nodded eagerly. "Yeah, totally! What are we making?" he asked, skipping over to the kitchen. 

Julie hummed, closing her notebook. "Y'know, I think we could have just enough time to make arroz con gandules, Tía sent over a jar of sofrito and some habichuelas guisadas, we could eat it with that. Mom always used to make it for Carlos after a big game," she explained, smiling wistfully. 

"Yeah, totally," agreed Reggie enthusiastically. "But, uh, what is arroz con… gan…?"

"Gandules," corrected Julie, laughing. "It's Puerto Rican rice with pigeon peas -- which aren't actually peas, I think they're lentils? But it's really good. Habichuelas guisadas are beans, Tía likes to send them over."

"Ooh," Reggie said. "Sounds cool! Let's do it."

Julie took out her mom's old personal cookbook, a thick notebook with flour dusted all over it. She flipped through before finding the recipe. "Okay, we'll need some sofrito, tomato sauce, the pigeon peas, adobo…"

They got out all the ingredients, and then Julie eyed a cabinet. "Mom always used a specific pot for this, the caldero," she explained, "but it's kinda big. Help me get it out?"

Reggie nodded and they took out the big pot together, placing it onto the stove. It was indeed a big pot, silver and thick-bottomed. Julie nodded with self-satisfaction and then checked the recipe again. "Okay, I'm going to wash off the rice. Could you get the sofrito for me from the fridge? It's green, in a mason jar."

Reggie went over and found it on the side of the fridge, peering at it. Checking to see if Julie was still washing the rice (she was), he opened the jar curiously and poked his pinkie finger into the sauce and then into his mouth.

"Oh," he exclaimed in surprise, making Julie look over. "I'm sorry! I just wanted to taste it but ah… it's strong…"

Julie laughed. "Tía likes to put lots of raw garlic," she said. "That's probably what you're tasting."

"Now you tell me," he bemoaned, filling up a glass of water and chugging it all down. "It was a lot!"

Julie shook her head fondly as Reggie attempted to recover. "C'mon, Reg, we gotta finish this soon."

They got to work eventually, mixing the sofrito, oil, and tomato sauce, and then letting it simmer. 

Julie went to go find a can of pigeon peas, letting Reggie supervise the pot. It didn't take long before he yelped out, though, "Ahh, Julie, it's bubbling a lot -- "

"It's fine, Reggie, just keep stirring it," Julie said, searching around the pantry. "Where are those gandules?"

Reggie experimentally poked a wooden spoon into the mix, only for it to bubble up and splash on his bare arm. " _Ouch_ ," he said, quickly reaching over to the stove heat and turning it down. " _Julieeee_ , the sauce was mean to me!"

Julie, with a can of pigeon peas in tow, raised a skeptical eyebrow. "I told you to stir," she accused.

"It was angry," Reggie insisted, pouting, going over to the sink and rinsing off his arm. "Full of fury. Must've been all that garlic Tía put."

Rolling her eyes, Julie began to open the can. "Why don't you put some music on the speaker?"

Reggie brightened and put on some Green Day; after mixing the pigeon peas and spices into the sauce, Julie got on some Dua Lipa. They both danced around the kitchen, using their wooden spoons as microphones before Reggie looked over at the stove.

"Julie, the rice, it's about to boil over -- "

Dance party abruptly abandoned, Julie ran over to the stove and lowered it. "Close one," she said in relief, stirring the rice a little. "Okay, I think we can let it sit now. I'll cover it."

Reggie side-eyed the laptop. Julie easily caught the hint and put on the next Mandalorian episode. 

Just as it was wrapping up, Luke came into the house jubilantly, holding up his notebook. "I finished this song!" he declared proudly, stopping as he got into the kitchen. "Oh, man, that smells good, what is that?"

"Julie and I made arroz con gandules," Reggie said, proud, and almost pronouncing it right. "It's rice for Carlos."

Luke smirked and jostled Reggie's shoulder. "Just Carlos?"

"Not just Carlos," Reggie corrected himself, rolling his eyes. "Are they going to be back soon, Julie?"

Julie looked at the clock. "Yeah, probably. Let's heat up the beans and set the table."

\---

Carlos put a spoonful of rice into his mouth seriously as everyone watched him. "Almost as good as Mom's," he told the table.

To Reggie, this was probably the highest praise he could imagine getting. He and Julie high-fived as Ray nodded in agreement. "Great job, mijos," he said. 

Reggie beamed with pride, heart swelling. 

"I'm going to eat all the crunchy parts," declared Luke, reaching a hand over to the plate of pegao, the crunchy rice from the bottom of the pot.

"No!" cried out Reggie and Carlos together, reaching over.

"Save some for Alex, he's supposed to be home soon," chided Ray.

Julie smiled at everyone, sending up a silent thank-you to her mom for making the night feel so full and her family feel complete again. 

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!! comments are appreciated <3


End file.
